Esme’s Blog: New Year’s Thanks From ‘CCO Sunday Morning

After a week off with family and friends, and at the start of this New Year, I just want to say thank you for all of you who watch WCCO Sunday Morning at 10 a.m. I am deeply grateful that you continue to watch and I appreciate your feedback, and even your criticism.

I also want to thank the wonderful guests who take the time to come to our studio. Their willingness to share their views with all of us is enlightening, and that they choose to do it during this show is personally very humbling.

So, all of you, whether guests, viewers or the professional staff here at WCCO Sunday Morning, especially the show’s regular producer Joan Gilbertson, I would like to say to all of you.

Esme Murphy, a reporter and Sunday morning anchor for WCCO-TV, has been a member of the WCCO-TV staff since December 1990. She is also a weekend talk show host on WCCO Radio. Born and raised in New York City, Esme ventured into reporting after...

One Comment

VK maybe you & I shoud be thankful for this free forum that we have been provided, from Thy bounty, to expound our comments & theories to a vast audience of intelligent snow-familiar readers. Wonder how many people read Esme’s Blog & from what States & nations?

Esme…. welcome back from Blogging Vacation (since 12/18). To be honest….I read your blog FIRST when I log on. Cheers to you for the New Year…. and Hopefully 2011 will be a year where you can be Fair and Balanced in journalism. I know its hard to do….. but you give me Faith. Have a Great 2011!!

Again you let Michele Bachmann lie about the TARP legislation and the deficit spending by the Obama administration. You could have pointed out that most of TARP was passed under the Bush Administration and has been paid back WITH INTEREST. As well you could have pointed out and that the deficit was caused by Bush by not paying for two wars and tax cuts for the top 2%. She continues to lie and you continue to let her.

Esme,
You are not a balanced journalist and it is clear you treat your DFL guests with much more respect and reverence compared to conservative guests. You should not be allowed to be on the air. Period. Oh wait, it is WCCO so DFL Don has set the standard for years. Duh.

How can you let Michelle Bachmann spout that drivel about Republicans fixing the deficits and debt (to be “fair to our children”), when it’s the Republicans who have CREATED the deficits and debt. Our last three Republican presidents —- Reagan/Bush/Bush II — created 87% of the current national debt ($12.049 trillion of the $13.882 trillion total)!

Beginning thirty years ago, every time Republicans take power they institute “trickle-down” economic policy, and every time they do so the deficits explode, job creation goes down, unemployment rates go up and our economy suffers. Whether it’s called trickle-down economics, supply-side economics, Reaganomics or “market-based” economics (as Bachmann prefers), it all means the same thing: tax cuts for the rich and deregulation for business. This supposedly leads to new and expanded U.S. businesses, more jobs, increased tax revenues and LOWER deficits, but thirty years of history prove it has the opposite effect.

Note that Reagan lowered the top rate from 70% to 28%, the biggest tax cut in U.S. history. That is what started us on this path of massive deficits, crumbling infrastructure and concentration of wealth.

The lie of Reaganomics is that it creates jobs. The actual numbers show the opposite effect, and in fact show that job creation exploded after President Clinton increased the top rate to 39.6%. Overall, twenty years of trickle-down, tax-cutting presidents (Reagan/Bush/Bush II) created 21.5 million jobs, while just eight years of the more traditional economic policies of Clinton created 23.1 million jobs. That’s nearly three times as many new jobs created per year!

The second biggest component of deficits is military spending, yet while Bachmann and her ilk flog the “spending” issue they always exempt military spending. Each of the trickle-down Republican presidents also greatly increased military spending. See the “Defense Budget Outlays” graph here:http://www.warresisters.org/files/FY2011piechart.pdf

And, note the pie chart showing that nearly half of all federal income taxes go to military spending.

Finally, you can see (from all of the above) that Bill Clinton got it right when he increased the highest marginal tax rate and reduced military spending. Clinton’s policies worked, Republican policies failed, and Bachmann and the Tea Party represent these same Republican policies. Please don’t let Bachmann rewrite history unchallenged.